Word: caucasus
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...Turkey's recognition of the 1915 genocide a precondition for diplomatic talks. Instead, the new plan calls for the establishment of a commission to study historical records and promote dialogue. "It isn't just history from a book, it is [about] our grandmothers," says Alexander Iskandaryan, head of the Caucasus Institute. "It is part of our historical memory, and the reason why an Armenian diaspora exists ... But, that doesn't mean the border should be closed. The problems between two peoples will disappear as we continue to discuss." (Read "Can Soccer Heal Turkey-Armenia Rift...
...killed, more than half of them children. The attack was said to have altered the whole arc of not only the horrific conflict in nearby Chechnya but also the presidency of Vladimir Putin. Beslan was supposed to have given Moscow resolve. North Ossetia - indeed, the whole of the North Caucasus, between the Black Sea to the west and the Caspian Sea to the east - was supposed to be tranquil, harmonious, subdued. But that's not what has happened...
...part of Russia. They failed. In 1999, three years after the end of the first Chechen war, they went back, at the prodding of then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. In a move reminiscent of Tolstoy's hundred-year-old Hadji Murad - which was also set in a strife-ridden Caucasus - the chief separatist, Akhmad Kadyrov, like the title character in the prescient short novel, switched sides at the beginning of the second Chechen war and crushed the rebellion. Assassinated in May 2004, Kadyrov was replaced by his son. (From TIME's archives, read about the massacre of the innocents...
Alexey Malashenko, a North Caucasus specialist at the Carnegie Moscow Center, portrayed the violence in the region as part of a nearly 20-year intermittent struggle inaugurated by the collapse of the Soviet Union. Malashenko and Gregory Shvedov, the editor-in-chief of Caucasian Knot, an Internet news site that has drawn unwanted attention from authorities, attributed the bloodshed to Islamic extremism and corrupt government officials in Grozny, the Chechen capital; Makhachkala, the Dagestani capital; and Magas, the Ingushetian capital. "There is no access to any freedoms, political and civil freedoms, including religious freedoms, which is fueling the situation," Shvedov...
...recent poll conducted by the Levada Center, a Moscow-based NGO, found that Russians are increasingly pessimistic about their southern fringe. Denis Volkov, a researcher at the center, noted that the survey showed 46% of Russians have faith in the authorities to bring peace to the North Caucasus. Five years ago, that figure was above 60%. Malashenko says there is no end in sight: "We should be prepared for a continuation of this state of latent civil...